cruelyethuman | Inbox Ximilia

I remember

[Everything]

Are you badly injured? I know of a healer who might be able to help, last I saw her, she was in the library.

Bones found me you dont know where you are?

Every hallway look the same, I'm afraid.

Is he a healer? Are you alright?

[He wipes at the blood on his face, and thanks the saints that Daisy opted for text and not the other one. With pictures.]

[It's beyond frustrating that she can't just get up from her cot, but she's also so exhausted that she couldn't even if she wanted to.]

Can you mark where you've been?

[She's seen him do it before.]

he's a doctor i'll be ok

[Because she's definitely going to dodge his actual question.]

are you ok?

I might have before falling asleep. If you're by the kitchen, I can find it.

I'm fine, as always.

Did anyone find the orb or any sign of it?

I’m right near it

[And if she wasn’t terrified by the idea of him being by himself she wouldn’t even let him see her right now.]

finn can talk to the castle. Sam, Yelena and a few others are going to the top of the castle. They think the wizard is up there

[And, ever the hypocrite…]

You don’t have to lie to me.

[About being okay.]

Edited 2021-11-17 16:22 (UTC)

I'll find it.

Of course he can, why am I not even surprised. Is the castle giving us any insights on how to find the orb, and get very far away here?

[The next message comes a minute or two after the first one.]

Force of habit. Not the lying, but being fine. I'm bruised, it will fade.

The dream faded just in time, before his memory-self had used the Cut on himself and leave him bleeding out in a corridor in a fairy tale castle far from help.

The bleeding head wound could close up in time, or he would drag himself to Sabriel again.]

Finn found where the orb used to reside. He says he can feel it, the orb, but it feels like it's been everywhere in the castle.

[Wiping her face to get rid of any tears still there, Daisy's suddenly aware of just how awful she probably looks now that Kirigan is on the way.]

You should get checked out.

Edited 2021-11-17 19:10 (UTC)

It was inside the young woman on the first mission. Maybe it is inside someone else this time.

[That would explain the orb being everywhere that the person might have been. Too many things were uncertain, the information gleaned from the network and from reading through the library, yet none of it mentioned just what the orb was this time.

Aside from a weapon.

He walks slowly through the castle, the way made easier by how the building seemed to have stopped trying to lure him in to traps or dead ends.]

No need. It will take more than a dream to kill me.

That's a working theory.

[One of many, actually. Despite reaching out to Sam already, Daisy's concerned for him and everyone else involved. What if this is one giant trap?]

Just because you're not dead doesn't mean you shouldn't have that healer check you out. Or Bones.

No doubt one of many.

[The hallway stretches out before him, the walls swaying with every other step but the Darkling makes his way back down towards the kitchen, dragging himself forward by sheer determination.

He's not worried about Daisy, who could level a building with her bare hands and never backed down from a fight, but it is not a bad idea to find other people. To stick to a group until they figure out what to do next.]

I'll think about it.

At least we've got a lead now.

[And she can't help them. This is easily the worst mission she's been on since arriving here. Especially having to relieve one of the most traumatic experiences in her life, which is saying something considering just how many traumatic things she's gone through.]

Good

That the orb is here. We already knew that, but I suppose it's not as dire a situation as we first thought.

[It's slow going, with long stretches of the Darkling sending nothing over the network as he fights his swimming thoughts and the dizziness that threatens to overtake him as the corridor waves in and out of focus.

But every step brings him close to Daisy and to the kitchen.]

What are you doing right now?

I’m not sure I’d go that far

[And while she’s doing her best to not just pass out, it’s been hard for Daisy to keep track of time. She isn’t sure how much time has passed between texts.]

Staring at the ceiling Are you sure you know where you’re going?

[Maybe she should try to find someone to go look for him.]

No? How far would you go, then? A glimmer of a plan, a smidgen of being on the right track.

[It takes him far longer than it should have, to walk the hallways down the castle until he reaches the kitchens and make-shift head quarters set up close by.

The Darkling rounds the corner very slowly, hand braced against the wall.]

I always know where I'm going. The marks worked better than I thought they would.

I just meant I wouldn't be so quick to think this situation isn't dire.

[Looking off to the side when she hears him speak up, Daisy pushes herself up as much as she can when she sees just how awful he looks.]

Oh my god.

[Daisy looks around for anyone who could help him, but there's no one around right now.

Fuck it. Bones can yell at her later.

Getting up from the cot slower than she'd like, Daisy moves as quickly as she can over to him.]

What happened?

[Looking down at her pale face, the tremble in her limbs as Daisy gets out of the bed, the Darkling arches an eyebrow.]

I had a dream, it wasn't pleasant, but obviously something I already lived through.

[His dreams, shared with strangers. And Daisy. The Darkling shies away from the dream he woke up from, and the person who witnessed it.]

You look- in pain. What did this doctor even do, if you're still in this state?

[Daisy won’t push to get more details, but apparently things got worse once they unwillingly parted ways.

It had for her too.

Reaching him, Daisy places a clammy hand on his arm to try and steer him towards the cots. There’s empty ones to either side of hers.]

A lot, actually.

[She would’ve likely died if he hadn’t gotten to her, but she won’t tell Kirigan that.]

Sit.

[Once he listens, Daisy moves to sit next to him. It feels like she just ran a marathon. Lifting her hand, Daisy brushes his hair away from his face to get a better look at him.]

There’s no one here right now, but I can try and get in contact with Bones?

[He allows the order, and follows it, but only because the stubborn line between Daisy's eyebrows is getting deeper. From pain and because she clearly has no intention of returning to bed if he doesn't comply.

That doesn't mean that he likes it.

Hissing, his head rears back from her touch. The skin tender and still bleeding slowly despite the pressure he tried to put on it on the way here.]

There's really no need. It looks worse than it is- [probably. The dream had happened centuries ago, and the worst of his injuries had been healed before he woke up, bundled up on the bed his mother made him as she made sure no one came close enough to touch him.] Head wounds always bleed excessively.

[The Darkling's eyes flick down to her arms, to see if she's injured herself, and then up to take all of her in. Her pale face, the tight lines of pain etched around her eyes.]

I lost you in the dark... what dream did this to you?

Edited 2021-11-19 19:16 (UTC)

[Wincing in sympathy when he pulls his head back, Daisy drops her hand.]

Sorry.

[There's a clean towel next to her cot so she gets up slowly to grab it for him. Despite how much Bones managed to heal her, she's still weak and in pain and absolutely hates it. Coming back to his cot, Daisy gingerly wipes the blood trailing down the side of his face before pressing it against the cut.]

Hold it there.

[She noticed the way he seems to be assessing her too, and when others have asked about what happened she was intentionally vague. With Kirigan it's different, because she's talked about it with him. Not in great detail, but all the same...

Letting her hand fall away once he's got a hold on the towel, Daisy exhales slowly as she looks down at her hands.]

Remember how I told you I was captured?

[Biting the inside of her cheek, Daisy looks at Kirigan from the corner of her eye before continuing.]

They, um--

Took whatever they could from me, without killing me, to use on themselves to gain my powers.

[This time she lifts her head to look at him, the emotional pain evident in her eyes.]

It worked.

[It's strange, how Daisy ignores the pain in her own body to focus on his. The gentle way she moves the wet towel against his face, staining it with his blood before pressing down - still more gently than anyone has done in... too long.

The Darkling blinks, taking the towel to keep her talking. To keep her close.]

They took from you.

[Those words ring out in the silence of the room, and he lets them hang - ominous in how she says it so casually yet her eyes are burning with unshed tears.

Swallowing, his free hand reaches out to brush against the back of Daisy's on the crisp sheets.]

They stole your powers for themselves- carved them out of you. Daisy-

[The standard phrases he used to say to the freed Grisha once they had been rescued, seem useless now.

Hollow.

Like lies dressed up in the pretty words, to absolve himself from shying away from thinking about them too hard. From his own failure to save them, all of them, before a fate like this befell them.]

You're safe now.

[Lips pressing together when Daisy feels his hand brush along hers, Daisy nods once before looking down at the ground again. He out of everyone here understands what that's like, how violating it is, and it hurts to see that look on his face.

His words of comfort break what little strength she had left to not break down, even the lack of privacy doesn't stop the sob that escapes her. She never had time to properly deal with this the first time, and the silence had stretched on here for hours. Too afraid to asleep she was left replaying that length of time when she was with Nathaniel over and over again.

She doesn't feel safe. Not knowing what could happen if she falls asleep again, that even with as much distance humanly possible between her and Nathaniel he still managed to hurt her. Again.]

[Growing up in Ravka, made the men and women hard. Watching loved ones march off to feed the ever-hungry wheels of war or be forced in to labor camps for even the smallest transgression.

The earth as hard and as unforgiving as the people who lives on it, and through it. Harvests failing due to weather or poor soil, the animals succumbing to disease and malnutrition. Summers were hard, back-breaking work and the winter were for hoping this wasn't the winter you died.

The Darkling had lived through more strife than he cares to think about, the hopelessness before the Little Palace too near the surface as he looks in to Daisy's face, the tears on her cheeks and the tiny sound that escapes her lips.

There was no crying in Ravka, not for the fate you would surrender to, nor the horrors visited upon the people you cared about, and he had always stayed well away from the new Grisha children until they were settled. And less upset.

There is no one else here to sooth the savage emotions left behind on her, the terrors her dreams had inflicted on her flesh, so- the Darkling slides one arm very slowly around Daisy's shoulders before pulling her more firmly against his chest.]

[Daisy hasn’t been comforted like this in a long time, but she doesn’t have the energy to resist it when he pulls her close to him.

This is her fault. Her mother’s death is her fault. If she had done something to stop Nathaniel, he wouldn’t have gained her powers and used them to kill her mother.

Arms tucked against her chest, Daisy turns her face into him as she closes her eyes. Not sleeping definitely isn’t helping her to control her emotions as she continues to sob.]

[It had been too long since losing someone affected him in any other way than slight annoyance - someone new to train, to get used to for the scarce years they would be by his side. His personal guard, rotating every ten years or so and it was always jarring to watch the new and very young faces look back with the fear barely veiled behind their eyes.

His loses are impersonal and distant. A pin-prick to Daisy's torrent of grief.

The Darkling doesn't look in to the faces of his Grisha, missing the great-grand mother of the child he's training, because she made herself memorable.

But he looks down on the dark head cradled against his chest, feeling something twist inside his heart as he soothes his hands down Daisy's back.]

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